I love this time of the year: maybe it’s the gentle easing back into the world of wedding photography and work after Christmas, maybe it’s the excitement of having a whole new year in front of me, a blank canvas. I think what I love most of all is how these first magical couple of weeks of the new year are always a time of reflection for me – on the weddings I shot, the places I traveled, the people I met and the friends I made. 2018 felt full to the brim with all of these things, so putting together this blog post has been an emotional and time-consuming ride!

Sometimes you just get a feeling about a couple - you click instantly, and they feel like old friends rather than wedding photography clients. Kayleigh and James are one of these couples - from the moment we first spoke over Skype about photography for their upcoming wedding at Walcot Hall, I knew they were going to be F.U.N.

I spend half my life ogling elopement photography from the Scottish Highlands on Instagram, so when Albion and Tania suggested that we do their engagement shoot near Glencoe while I was travelling around Scotland in my campervan, naturally I jumped at the chance.

Fiona and Tom arrived in Shropshire from London 24 hours before their wedding to the news that the field they had booked for their rustic marquee reception was totally waterlogged. After several days of torrential downpours, the topsoil had completely washed away, and it was looking like they would have to find an alternative venue as the mudbath was so bad that the marquee was proving difficult to put up!

Dani and Paul’s wedding at Whitsand Bay Fort was bathed in that special brand of early summer sunshine, the kind that reflects off tarmac and feels so fresh and bright it hurts. A summer breeze added to the fresh ocean feel as the couple said their vows in front of family and friends overlooking the glittering sea below.

Part of the reason I chose to be a wedding photographer is my love of travel, so when Niamh and Brendan got in touch from Ireland to ask if I’d be interested in being their wedding photographer, it was an instant yes from me! In 2017 I shot two weddings in Ireland (you can see them here and here), and fell in love with the Emerald Isle, so to be asked back for a third time was a real treat.

When Millie and Winston said the magic words “have you heard of The Grand Budapest Hotel?” and said that was the feel they were going for when it came to their wedding, I have to admit I did a little happy dance! Wes Anderson is one of my favourite filmmakers, and Wes Anderson inspired wedding photography has been on my bucket list for a while!

Time for a little interlude in amidst the weddings. One of the massive perks of being a wedding photographer is the chance to set my own schedule in the quieter months, and as wedding season wasn’t quite in full swing we took the opportunity to continue where we left off last year.

Any engagement shoot that involves getting a boat to get there is fine by me - unfortunately Dani and Paul were in their car so no fun nautical engagement photos for us, but luckily Mount Edgcumbe had plenty else to offer us.

It's hard to believe that we're already over three months into 2018, and even harder to believe that the bookings are starting to roll in for 2019! I'm a bit late to the game with sharing my round up of 2017, but I've only got myself to blame as I swanned off to Bali and Indonesia to shoot a wedding and then travel for 6 weeks, making the scary decision to leave my laptop at home.

One of the massive perks of being a wedding photographer is the seasonal nature of the work - it's one of the main reasons I went into wedding photography as I love to travel, and I knew that working all summer in places like Cornwall, Devon and Shropshire would mean that over the winter I could explore more far flung destinations (and hopefully book some destination weddings along the way).

When Kirsty and Jesse's asked if I would consider flying to Perth to be their wedding photographer for what promised to be a beautiful backyard wedding in the Western Australian bush, let's just say I didn't have to mull it over for long.

The middle wedding in a month of weddings at Walcot Hall for me, Monique and George had chosen the end of September for their Walcot Hall wedding. Taking a risk with the weather paid off, and we were greeted on the morning of their wedding with a hazy mist, which created some lovely diffused light for the photography!

Jesse and Rose couldn't have picked a more beautiful day to get married. The sky was blue, the sun shone into the bridal suite and showed off Walcot Hall in all her glory! This was a special wedding for me - Jesse is an old friend, and they had chosen to get married in our local church, where I'd grown up going to Midsummer Rejoicing, Christingle and Midnight Mass - I was excited to finally get to shoot there, and to top it off they'd chosen my old favourite, Walcot Hall as their reception venue.

When we met to discuss their plans, Hazel and Dan downplayed everything to the point that I was literally just expecting a casual garden party with only a smidge of "wedding" about it. What I arrived to was a full blown, beautifully curated back garden wedding that would have looked at home on the pages of a bridal magazine.

The ceremony was held under an archway in the garden of Hazel's family home, which has been painstakingly built over the past few decades by her father, an artisanal wood carver. Personal touches were abundant at every turn, from the hand painted signage to the gigantic (and I mean GIGANTIC) hand carved wooden bowls that held the best wedding salads this veggie wedding photographer has ever seen!

With the weather having been rather damp in the run up to the day, everyone was very happy to be gifted with a dry day complete with some beautiful evening sun, perfect for some golden hour wedding portraits!

Shropshire is a hidden gem. At a wedding I was photographing recently the father of the bride welcomed guests to the county by saying that he knew most of them “didn’t know where on earth Shropshire was before they came, and half of them still didn’t have a clue where they were.” He was only half joking; when I tell people I’m from Shropshire, I’m usually met with a blank stare. Either that or an exaggerated “Oh, THROPTHIRE” if I’m in Australia (a strange relic from a 1990’s coffee advert, apparently).

So why on earth did Shropshire pull me back to the UK after four years living and loving the long hot Australian summers? Sydney has an incredibly reputation as a hotbed of wedding photography, with some of the worlds best coming from her fair shores, but here I was packing up my life and heading back to 5 weeks of summer a year, unpredictable wedding weather conditions and living with a hot water bottle stuffed down my pants for six months of the year.

Well, here goes:

1.Unknown equals unspoilt, dontcha know? I’m no city girl. Tried it, got the t-shirt, got fed up of the t-shirt and the city. Shropshire is a remote wilderness by comparison. Sharing a border with Wales, my home county is a dreamscape of rolling green hills, winding country lanes and cosy pubs. This equals plenty of beautiful rural weddings to shoot, which means mandatory welly wearing, wildflower bouquets and frolicking/trespassing in the open countryside.

2.Family. They’re pretty important, I’m sure you’ll agree, and I was missing out on my family, albeit a tiny one. My gran is an incredible 96 years old, my dad is getting on a bit, and my family of friends has started expanding through the birth of some new small people. Now I get to see my gran three times a week, hang out with my dad on the farm, and be a physical presence in my friends kids lives.

3.Old things. Australia is a pretty new country compared to England, and as much as I love art deco architecture, I was really missing higgledy piggledy buildings. This feeds into my wedding photography too – Shropshire offers a huge list of stately home wedding venues, and two of them are just down the road from me (Walcot Hall and Garthmy Hall).

4.Proximity to…well, anywhere. England may be small in comparison to Australia, but she’s well connected! It takes five hours to fly across the breadth Australia, but now I can be in Greece, Turkey or Morocco in that time or less. Tack on two hours and I can be in the USA. A huge part of the reason I became a wedding photographer in the first place was the idea of being able to travel and work – it’s proving much easier to realise my dream of being a destination wedding photographer with the UK as my base, with weddings in Ireland, France and the USA already in the pipeline for next year.

I've never been content with sitting still and doing just one job, so for the past few months as well as wearing my wedding photography hat I've also been working hard on a new sideline. I'm really insanely excited to announce the launch of my new biodegradable glitter shop, Wild Glitter!

Washing a weekends worth of glitter off myself after a festival last year, it suddenly struck me that glitter was effectively the same as the microbeads I had recently campaigned to have banned. A bit of research told me that glitter is classed as a primary microplastic, meaning that it is manufactured in pieces smaller than 5mm; this also means that unfortunately it can slip straight through our water filtration systems and adds to the some 8 million tonnes of plastic floating about in our oceans.

Fortunately, a solution is at hand. Wild Glitter is fully biodegradable in sea water and soil, but it won't break down in the packet or on your skin as it needs bacteria and microbes to help it on its journey. This means it is totally environmentally friendly, low impact and perfect for festivals, weddings and outdoor events.

With my background as a wedding photographer, it was natural for me to thing of biodegradable glitter from a wedding perpective. Our 3ml and 10ml jars of biodegradable glitter make perfect festival wedding favours, and we're even offering a custom option so that you can have your names and wedding date printed on the label! Aside from favours, we also supply larger quantities for glitter bars or glitter stations, so that your guests can add some sparkle themselves!

Wild Glitter compostable glitter is also vegan, offering an ethical, cruelty-free, eco-friendly way to sparkle. For more information see www.wildglitter.com, or follow along on instagram and facebook @wildglitterstore.

It's no secret that a big part of the reason I became a wedding photographer in the first place was to allow myself the flexibility and autonomy over my working life required to travel. Being a wedding photographer is kind of a double whammy - not only does it mean I can work when I want to work (two weeks holiday in July, don't mind if I do), but it also means I can combine work and pleasure by travelling and shooting weddings at the same time.

A month in Ireland earlier this year was bookended by two beautiful weddings, one near Cork and the other in The Connemara, giving me three weeks of pure unadulterated travelling. I could edit the wedding photographs on rainy days or quiet moments, fitting it around a busy schedule of hiking, stout drinking and traditional music. It felt to me how life is supposed to feel!

Destination weddings are ever increasing - from small, intimate weddings with a select few family and friends, to luxurious no-expense-spared celebrations. Having already photographed weddings in Ireland and Sydney, Australia, and with a booking in Spain next year my sights are set on ticking off some more of my bucket list destinations and venues. If you're getting married at any of the below, or even if your destination wedding is somewhere not listed, get in touch with me for a special rate!

Kangaroo Valley wedding, New South Wales, Australia.With its natural rock cathedral and stunning bush setting, Kangaroo Valley has been on my destination wedding photography wish list ever since I attended a beautiful festival wedding there in 2015. As a bonus my Australian visa gives me full rights to work there, so no red tape to contend with!

Marlborough wedding, New Zealand.We travelled through Marlborough in 2012 but just didn't get enough time there. With its stunning scenery and my favourite wines in the world I'd fall over myself to shoot a wedding there!

Iceland destination wedding.I've never been to Iceland, but it's been firmly on my travel bucket list for years, and I'd love nothing more than to photograph a wedding against its bleak, atmospheric landscape.

Tropical jungle wedding, worldwide.Doesn't matter where this one is - it could be Paronella Park in Australia, a rainforest wedding in Sri Lanka or a wedding deep in the Jungle in Bali. As a wedding photographer, the idea of shooting a wedding amidst all that lush green vegetation fills me with joy!

Urban Paris wedding, France.As a photography student, many moons ago, I took my trusty old 35mm Spotmatic camera to Paris and snuck around the city of love, pretending I was Henri Cartier-Bresson or Robert Doisneu, shooting reel after reel of black and white film of street photography. I would love to come full circle and have the opportunity to shoot a city wedding in Paris.

Creative Georgetown wedding, Penang, Malaysia.Penang has to be one of my favourite places to visit - the food is incredible (especially for veggies like me), the colonial architecture and bright colours mean that I constantly have my camera to my face, and the creativity that oozes out of the place inspires me no end. A wedding amidst Penang's fading colonial facades and world class street art would be to die for!

So there is it, my destination wedding photography wish list - now I've put it out there let's see if the universe delivers me some lovely couples! If you think your wedding fits the bill, or even if you're getting married somewhere unusual or quirky that I haven't thought of then I'd love to hear from you.

I'm definitely guilty of looking to far flung, exotic destinations for adventure, but Ireland has been on my radar for a long time and so when I was booked for two Irish weddings at either end of April this year I decided it was the perfect opportunity for a busman's holiday (quite literally, as I was travelling in my campervan, Sunny the Wonderbus).

Whether it was the sheer beauty of the place, or the endorphins coursing through my veins as my hyperactive boyfriend pushed me to cycle and walk my way through the most active couple of weeks of my life I'll never know, but it's safe to say that I was pretty emotional; every day something, someone or someplace moved me to tears of happiness.

Rather than write up the whole trip, here are my top ten, in no particular order:

2. The Gap of Dunloe. We hired bikes in Killarney and caught the boat from Ross Castle to Kate Kearney's Cottage then cycled up to the Gap from there. Not for the faint hearted - the route is steep and winding, but so worth it when you get to the top.

3. The Connemara. Ponies, windswept wild scenery and lots of water. We didn't explore much on the way up, but I was doing the photography for a wedding at Cashel House Hotel, Connemara, so later I explored more and was blown away.

4. Galway City. A vibrant, musical hub with campervan parking right in the centre, perfect! We tried the sessions at Tig Cóilí and Taaffes Bar, both of which were packed with tourists like us, before heading over the river to Cranes Bar where it was much more local feeling and there were incredible sessions going on upstairs and downstairs.

5. Trad session at De Barras, Clonakilty. So many amazing musicians crammed into the bar at De Barras, the friendly locals made sure we knew where the craic was!

6. Dingle and the Slea Peninsula. I loved Dingle for the colourful houses and the relaxed atmosphere. We parked up overnight on the Marina, and hired bikes the next day to cycle 52km around the Slea Peninsula - it was hard going as we were cycling into the wind for a lot of it, but the views were incredible and we saw a pod of dolphins really close to the shore.

7. Cliffs of Moher. Mindblowing cliffs, and a very very windy walk where I was sure I was going to get blown into the sea.

8. Baltimore Fiddle Fair. My dad just happened to be visiting Baltimore with friends towards the end of my trip, so I ended up changing my ferry ticket and staying a few more days to catch some of the action at the Baltimore Fiddle Fair - I met some lovely people, incredible musicians and even spotted Jeremy Irons playing a spot of fiddle himself!

9. Matt Molloy's, Westport. Having cycled 42kms of The Western Greenway that day, we were thirsty for a stout and some good music. Everybody recommends Matt Molloy's, owned by its namesake who happens to be one of the Chieftans (a famous trad Irish band). We stumbled upon a huge session taking place, eventually realising that we'd actually walked straight into Matt Molloy's wedding! We were treated to the biggest session the pub had ever seen, apparently, and had a grand old time!

10. The Ring of Beara. Now, I'm not entirely sure that I was technically allowed to drive this in Sunny the Wonderbus - the road is incredibly narrow and winding, and I'm pretty sure I was over the width and length limit! But I drove in nonetheless, with only a couple of hairy moments and one massively long and challenging downhill reverse. The scenery was incredible and it was well worth the anxiety!

All in all it was one of the best trips of my life, and being able to practise my Irish wedding photography while I was there was such a bonus! I'm hoping that there'll be some photography referrals from my lovely Irish couples, as I'd love to return photograph more weddings over there. Needless to say I'll be back in Ireland before long, as a wedding photographer or not!

Anna and Mark's wedding came at the end of a three week adventure up the west coast of Ireland in my campervan (more on that shortly). By the time I reached the tiny village of Cashel in the Connemara, Co. Galway, I had fallen well and truly head-over-heels in love with Ireland, and have to admit I shed a little happy tear when I first set eyes on Anna and Mark's venue, the beautiful Cashel House Hotel.

The hotel was set in abundant gardens, with a plethora of flower-filled nooks and crannies to escape to for our couples portraits, not to mention an atmospheric windswept waterfront across the road. The wedding came at the end of what I believe could be termed as something of a heatwave by Irish standards, and Anna and Mark were blessed with a mostly dry day.

Every part of the wedding was painstakingly considered to make sure it all had a personal feel, from their close friend leading the ceremony, to the hand gathered petal confetti which the couple had been collecting everywhere they went (including their Greek holiday). Guests enjoyed traditional Irish music in the evening, followed by a playlist put together by Anna and Mark - it must have hit the spot because the party was in full swing as I ducked out!